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Day: August 16, 2010

So, what does Rep. King define as “an American experience”? This man has been a loose cannon for a while. No one should be surprised at his demagoguery…yet it still amazing what these people think of to say!

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has long competed with Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) to be the most extreme member of Congress. At a town hall last week, King did his best to gain an edge.

Last month, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) hinted at impeaching President Obama for purportedly violating his oath of office by not completely securing the border. ThinkProgress caught up with Steve King to get his thoughts on the subject:

TP: I know you’ve been a real leader on the Republican side on the issue of immigration. Obviously a real hot-button issue right now. Do you think that if President Obama doesn’t do more to address illegal immigration and help stop it, that that would be a violation of his oath of office?

KING: Yes. He’s obligated to take care that the laws are faithfully enforced. And he’s essentially said he’s not going to do that. So you can argue that already it’s a violation of his oath of office.

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Orly Taitz honestly believes that her minion are so brain-washed by her, that she could get them to do whatever she asks. In her “natural-born” (no doubt) authoritarian manner, she has demanded much from her lemmings over the past two years or so. It’s been written on the internet that she has collected hefty sums of money from them already. We’ll see if they cough up this fine (and interest) as well.

Orly Taitz, whose claim to fame is her willingness to engage the courts in her effort to prove that President Obama isn’t a natural-born citizen, lost her final avenue of appeal today but doesn’t sound too worried about all the money she has to pay.

Taitz tells TPM’s Ryan J. Reilly that like-minded Americans will help her pay a $20,000 fine for filing frivolous lawsuits. People sent $3,500 in four or five days and “Within a month, I will have the $20,000,” Taitz said.

“Most of them are contributing maybe $20, $25 dollars, there’s a lot of support.”

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Mario’s blog is one of my favorites! His artwork is outsanding. I frequently use his work on this blog.

As for Ms. Rice, I understand her dillemma. Having gone to a Lutheran school from first grade to 12th grade, it’s been extremely difficult for me to embrace “Christianity” as it’s defined today. The hate and hostility, the bigotry and selfishness are simply not what I remember of the religion I embraced for decades.

“For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being ‘Christian’ or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.”

“In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life.”

I’m sure Rice is not alone in thinking that the belief structure set out by organized religion runs counter to the reality we call life. Here is a well-meaning but nonetheless condescending response by Pastor Mark Driscoll.

We should also pray for her. My guess is that she’s simply struggling with what it means to be a Christian while hurting. She lost her daughter Michele to leukemia in 1972, buried her gay best friend John Preston, who died of AIDS in 1994, and in 2002 she buried her husband of forty-one years, Stan Rice. Her son, bestselling author Christopher Rice, is a gay rights activist whom she loves even while she reads the Bible’s denial of his lifestyle as a God-honoring one. So, let her fellow Christians pray, love, and wait for Jesus to keep working on her as he is on us, thanking him that at least our struggles are not as publicly scrutinized as hers.

You believe in the US constitution, don’t you? You believe in people’s freedom to worship as they see fit? If so, what’s the problem?

You believe in small government, right? You believe that big government should get out of people’s lives, don’t you? If so, then what business does the president have in telling anyone what they should build where?

You make an interesting point that having the right to do something doesn’t mean you should. Would you extend the same principle to – oh, let’s say – gun control as well? Or would that be an attack on freedom and a trashing of the constitution? How can you try to have it both ways?

And you believe in the free market don’t you? So if you object to the owners’ plans for the site, why not just outbid them? Why not let the market decide?

In short, how can you justify a position on this issue that contradicts your positions on just about everything else?

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay will not face federal charges related to his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Politico reported.

The Justice Department notified DeLay’s lead attorney, McGuireWoods Chairman Richard Cullen, about the decision last week, the lawyer said.

“The federal investigation of Tom DeLay is over and there will be no charges,” Cullen told Politico. “This is the so-called Abramoff investigation run by the Public Integrity section of DOJ. There have been a series of convictions and guilty pleas since 2005.”

Cullen said that DeLay “voluntarily produced to the prosecutors over 1,000 emails and documents from the DeLay office dating back to 1997. Several members of Congress objected to producing official government records under Speech or Debate Clause concerns,” Cullen said.

“DeLay took the opposite position, ordering all his staff to answer all questions. He turned over more than 1,000 documents, and several of his aides gave interviews and grand jury testimony.”

A separate state probe in Texas into an alleged scheme to funnel corporate money in the 2002 campaign remains open, Cullen said. DeLay and two other men are allegedly raised $190,000 in corporate money in Texas through a fundraising committee and sent it the Republican National Committee, which then gave the money to candidates in Texas, a state which bans corporate donations.

DeLay would like to see that case go to trial, his lawyer Dick DeGuerin told TPMMuckraker in April.

On Morning Joe earlier today, a pair of leading Republicans — host Joe Scarborough and former Bush strategist Mark McKinnon — blasted the GOP for its xenophobic and unconstitutional stance against American Muslims’ right to build a new Islamic center in lower Manhattan.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has claimed that the new Islamic center project “would be like putting a Nazi sign next to the Holocaust Museum.” Referencing that quote, Scarborough expressed angry disdain at Gingrich’s intolerance. “I don’t know where to begin,” Scarborough said. “To suggest that someone trying to build a tolerance center for moderate Muslims in New York is the equivalent of killing six million Jews is stunning to me.”

McKinnon then chimed in, arguing that the debate surrounding the Cordoba House project is contrary to his party’s principles. “We may get our membership [by the GOP] revoked,” McKinnon joked. “Screw ‘em,” Scarborough responded. McKinnon then said that the GOP’s stance is “reinforcing al Qaeda’s message”:

McKINNON: Usually Republicans are forthright in defending the Constitution. And here we are, reinforcing al Qaeda’s message that we’re at war with Muslims. So we’ve got this issue; then we’ve got the 14th Amendment issue, where Republicans are saying you’re not welcome here, when we were the architects of the 14th Amendment. So, I see a bad pattern where we’re headed as a Republican Party.

McKinnon said he believed President Obama has “done the right thing in stepping forward at this time on this issue.” He added, “Tolerance means tolerating things you don’t like, especially when you don’t like them. … I respect the President for making this move.” Watch it:

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There’s a longstanding belief in the African-American community that Black folks (especially men) have to work twice as hard and accomplish twice as much, just to be considered “on par” with his white counterparts. That applies to school, work, graduate work and career. It appears our esteemed POTUS is not the exception to that unwritten rule.

But if you think Mr. Obama can have but a single “top priority,” you’d be wrong. He’s got a load of them.

In an Address to the Nation two months ago, Mr. Obama declared “our top priority is to recover and rebuild from a recession that has touched the lives of nearly every American.”

More than any other issue, he has used the phrase “top priority” about digging the economy out of the recession and creating jobs. And on this issue, he drew a distinction between “a” top priority and “the” top priority.

“Creating jobs in the United States and ensuring a return to sustainable economic growth is the top priority for my Administration,” he said in an Executive Order last March on his National Export Initiative.

Early in his administration, Mr. Obama also assigned the “top priority” label to his campaign promise to overhaul America’s health care system. But a check of his speeches since taking office, reflect a bevy of other “top priorities:”

FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS: “…that’s something that’s going to be a top priority.” (4/27/10)

ENERGY SECURITY: “And that’s why my energy security plan has been one of the top priorities of my Administration since the day I took office.” (4/28/10)

EDUCATION REFORM: “To train our workers for the jobs of tomorrow, we’ve made education reform a top priority in this Administration.” (2/24/10)

STUDENT LOAN REFORM: “This is something that I’ve made a top priority.” (2/1/10)

EXPORTS BY SMALL BUSINESSES: “This is going to be a top priority.” (12/3/09)

HEALTH ASSISTANCE TO 9/11 FIRST RESPONDERS: “I’m not just talking the talk, we’ve been budgeting this as a top priority for this Administration.” (2/3/10)

END HOMELESSNESS AMONG VETERANS: “I’ve also directed (Veterans Affairs) Secretary Shinseki to focus on a top priority: reducing homeless among veterans.” (8/17/09)

HURRICANE PREPAREDNESS: “Our top priority is ensuring the public safety. That means appropriate sheltering in place or if necessary, getting as many people as possible out of harm’s way prior to landfall.” (5/29/09)

H1N1 FLU VACCINATIONS: “And throughout this process, my top priority has been the health and the safety of the American people.” (5/1/09)

SUPPORT FOR MILITARY FAMILIES: “These military families are heroes too. And they are a top priority of Michelle and me. And they will always have our support.” (5/30/09)

STRENTHENING TIES WITH CANADA AND MEXICO: “We’re going to make this a top priority…” (10/16/09)

CONSUMER PROTECTION: “During these challenging times, the needs of American consumers are a top priority of my Administration.” (2/11/09)

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION: “So this is going to be a top priority generally improving our environmental quality.” (11/5/09)

The dictionary defines “top” as a singular entity: “the part of anything that is first or foremost.”

By designating a multitude of “top priorities,” Mr. Obama can be seen trying to score political points with the constituencies for all of these issues.